A blog about the Colorado Rapids, not the Wine. (We do support drinking, though!)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Omar Cummings almost played in Mexico?

If the reports are to be believed, the Rapids were receiving transfer offers for Omar Cummings from Mexican first-division team Necaxa that were thankfully declined, at least partially due to the Rapids not wanting to take on the transfer fees from the deal.

Here's the story, straight from Omar's mouth;

“A week before I officially learned of the interest, one of our players, (Chris) Sharpe, said, ‘Omar I hear that you’re going to Mexico.’ I had not heard anything, and he said he’d read it on some website. I didn’t think anything of it.

“The Sunday after we played the game against Houston (June 26), when we were coming back, I was approached by a guy at the airport. He said he came to watch me from the Mexican club, and came to personally ask me specifically if I would ever want to go play in Mexico. Because they could basically make an offer, going through MLS, but then what if I still didn’t want to go? So he personally wanted to know if I would be willing to play in Mexico.

“I said, ‘yes, I would be willing to play in Mexico.’

“He told me he’s from that club (Necaxa), that they had been in contact with MLS, and they had been looking at me for some time, and that they would very much like to add me to their roster for next season. He said that’s all he wanted to know, and then said, ‘See you in the next few weeks, in Mexico.’

“The next day, I texted my agent and asked if he had heard anything about this guy that approached me. He got in touch with MLS and it was for sure. The team had made a bid to MLS and Colorado, but so far they (MLS / Rapids) didn’t think it was good enough, but it was on-going.

“They made another bid, and the process was on-going until they (Necaxa) decided to go a different way.”

Cummings is the second leading scorer on the Rapids this season and has been in just about every single game either as a forward playing midfielder in Gary Smith's 4-5-1 formation or as a striker in Smith's 4-4-2. He spent a game as the lone striker in the 4-5-1 during Conor Casey's absence as well. His five goals are second on the team, he also leads the team in shots on goal with 19.

When asked if he was disappointed at the result, he was quoted as saying "It's kind of mixed-" so I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Either way, Omar will remain a Rapid for at least the rest of this season with the transfer window now closed. And that is most certainly a good thing.